Amid high temperatures, residents in Russia's Krasnodar stage rare protest over power cuts

Jul 21, 2024

Moscow [Russia], July 21 : Amid record-high temperatures, residents of the southern Russian city of Krasnodar held a rare protest on Saturday against power outages and disruptions to the water supply caused by a power grid breakdown, according to CNN.
After days without power, irate locals gathered on the streets close to residential buildings and chanted, "Give me light," as seen in several videos shared on social media.
Evgeny Naumov, the mayor of the city, stated on Saturday that efforts to fix the accident are underway and that residents are receiving drinking water. "We all need to remain calm and understand what is happening, although this is not easy," he said in a Telegram post.
According to Russian state news agency TASS, the power outages occurred on Friday, the fourth day in a row that a daily record was established, coinciding with the city's abnormally high temperatures.
According to TASS, the highest temperature on Friday was 39 degrees Celsius.
The functioning of the Rostov Nuclear Power Plant, the "abnormal heat," and inadequate capacity during peak load hours were among the factors that caused the outages, according to Krasnodar Governor Veniamin Kondratyev on Saturday.
A technical issue earlier this week forced the temporary closure of one of the major units of the Rostov plant.
"There has been abnormal heat in the Krasnodar region for a week now. The load on the energy system is colossal," Governor Kondratyev said, according to CNN. "I know and understand all the indignation of residents due to the power outages," he added.